Experimental data obtained at both earth-normal and elevated gravity, in a variety of organic liquids and water, are used to verify the hydrodynamic theory for the peak pool boiling heat flux on flat plates. A modification of Zuber’s formula, which gives a 14 percent higher peak heat flux, is verified as long as the flat plate is more than three Taylor wavelengths across. For smaller heaters, the hydrodynamic theory requires a wide variation in heat flux owing to discontinuities in the number of escaping jets. Data for smaller plates bear out this predicted variation with heat fluxes that range between 40 percent and 235 percent of Zuber’s predicted value. Finally, a method is suggested for augmenting the peak heat flux on large heaters, and shown experimentally to be viable.